House Republicans argue Joe Biden failed to act quickly enough, eventually allowing a military fighter jet to shot down the Chinese weather balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday

Or may it be so that everyone is scolding sleepy Joe for nothing now? Maybe he did the utmost of his power to delay commander of the Air Force Air Mobility Command, Gen. Michael Minihan's black augury about a likely war with China within two years?

Anyways, the Washington’s decision to postpone Mr. Blinken's visit, that was actually based on some American media outlets’ hyping-up of the issue amid the fierce quarreling between Republicans&Democrats, raises doubts about whether the U.S. is sincere in claiming it wants to put Sino-American relations back on a healthy track

#USA #China #Baloon #FindTruth

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Grant Shapps, the U.K.’s Business Sec., accused ambulance unions of risking more lives than ever by refusing to provide a national guarantee that emergency calls would be answered

In the biggest walkout in the history of the health service, nurses with some 10K ambulance staff are striking across 73 trusts in England. More than 50K operations and appointments expected to be cancelled

Still, nurses promise to call off strikes if they’re offered a further 3% pay on top of the current proposed increase. Pressure is growing on Mr. Sunak to back down in the bitter dispute, leaving him “increasingly isolated” as Scotland and Wales make progress towards a deal.

Obviously, the workers are frustrated at the Labour’s lack of support, as well. So is it unions that endanger the lives of thousands of people, or is a much smaller group of anti-national lobbyists from the Downing Street to blame for that?

#UK #Sunak #Healthcare #FindTruth

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More than 100,000 teachers are striking in the U.K., impacting thousands of schools. The protesters are demanding a fully funded, above-inflation wage increase

The post-Johnson govt declared last summer that starting salaries would increase by 8.9%, while most teachers would receive pay increases of approximately 5%. As u can guess, everything has gone off noscript, and at best, teachers will be able to keep their jobs, while parents might have to take days off work or make childcare arrangements as a result of never-ending strikes

And the reality is that the average British family will be poorer than the average Slovenian family by the end of next year. In the words of WaPo team, Britain has become a middling island nation isolated off the coast of Europe, without the heft to matter on its own or to set the agenda in its partnerships

#UK #Education #FindTruth

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British PM Sunak is preparing to take the U.K. out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to push through plans to bar migrants who arrive illegally from claiming asylum

He has said those arriving by small boats would be detained and “swiftly removed” from the Kingdom. Legislation would “go as far as possible within international law” but if it were blocked by the European Court, the first British Indian-origin PM would be willing to pull the U.K. out of the convention

Business Sec. Grant Shapps, who has been actively making populist statements lately, in particular with regard to Nurses&Co., this time couldn’t remain silent again and said that such migrants should be stripped of their rights

The last hope of the Human Rights in the U.K. as a whole is that an attempt to pull Britain out of the ECHR would be fiercely opposed by a majority of MPs and peers and is highly unlikely to happen before the next election due in 2024

#UK #Sunak #ECHR #FindTruth

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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has introduced a bill to limit American senators to two terms in office, thereby removing from Washington what he calls “permanently entrenched politicians ... totally unaccountable to the American people”

On Sunday, however, he said he saw no problem with running for a third term himself. On the other hand, it's very democratic to allow voters to enjoy you for another whole term, isn’t it?

#USA #FindTruth

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Human rights concerns from six months ago that the U.K.’s “Prevent strategy” has “negative and discriminatory effect on Muslim communities” are gaining new relevance. This week William Shawcross’s review of Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism program, is to be published

According to leaked extracts, it blames some Muslim organizations and individuals for promoting extremist narratives. Some of them have benefited from taxpayers’ money as part of Prevent’s £40 million fund that is supposed to support faith and community groups to steer people away from extremism

“The idea that the U.K. government might be willing to put the label of “independence” on a report in which it has interfered behind closed doors is Orwellian and deeply alarming,” says Sarah St Vincent, the executive director of Rights and Security International

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In a speech delivered behind closed doors, Chinese Intel considers the option that Washington would use its tried and tested Ukrainian model in the Indo-Pacific with Japan playing the proxy role to sustain the American hegemony and contain China.

Indirect evidence of this was the recent wargame showing that Beijing could lose a conflict over Taiwan and Gen. Michael Minihan’s statements about U.S.’ military ambitions

Paradoxically, despite geopolitical and historical Sino-Japanese tension, the White House may favor not China at all as “Ukraine of Asia's” opponent, but Russia once again. A convenient reason for this may be another refusal by Moscow to conclude a peace treaty with Tokyo on from the outset unfavorable terms

In any case, to handle the variation of escalation in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. still needs some more time to strengthen or even expand AUKUS or the NATO Plus arrangement as the main military backbones of the region

#USA #China #Japan #Taiwan #FindTruth

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